A security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, has asked the Federal Government to see the danger in the appointment of Abu Musab Al-Barnawi as the new Boko Haram leader by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Ekhomu, who is the President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, said the appointment was a dangerous development in the ongoing war against terrorism in the country.

Boko Haram had recently sworn allegiance with ISIS.

ISIS reportedly declared Al-Barnawi to replace Abubakar Shekau, after the latter failed to appear in any authentic video clip since 2015.

But Ekhomu, in a statement on Thursday, urged the FG to place intelligence agencies, the military, law enforcement and citizens on the full alert to avert terrorist attacks.

“If ISIS gets to appoint senior leadership for Boko Haram then they are probably running the Nigerian terror group as a local franchise.

Strategic decisions such as leadership
appointments are made by the spiritual leader of a terrorist group. In other words, the appointment of Al-Barnawi might have been made by ISIS leader Sheik Abu Bakr El-Baghdadi himself,” he added.

Ekhomu stated that under the leadership of Shekau, Boko Haram caused over 30,000 deaths in Nigeria. He called for a higher level of preparedness, urging Nigerians to be observant and report unusual events, people or packages to security agencies.

He called on the Lagos State Government to create an intelligence fusion centre where all-source intelligence could be harmonised in order to disrupt terror attacks in the state.

“As a mega city, Lagos presented a tempting target for BH/ISIS and the state should be target-hardened in order to prevent any surprise attack,” he added.